1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for laying a parking brake cable on automobile, between a floor tunnel and rear wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Automobiles are provided with parking brake systems for preventing them from moving unintentionally during parking thereby to ensure the safety.
FIG. 1 generally shows the construction of a typical conventional parking brake system. This parking brake system includes parking brake cables 7,7 connected through a bracket 6 to an equalizer 5 which in turn is connected through a wire 4 to a parking brake lever 3 disposed at the front side of a floor tunnel 2 provided to protrude from the central portion of the floor 1 of the automobile chassis. These parking brake cables 7,7' are derived from the outlet 2' of the floor tunnel and are turned laterally away from each other through large curvatures R,R' so as to be connected to respective rear wheel brakes 8,8'.
An exhaust pipe 9 also is laid in the floor tunnel 2 and is bent from the outlet 2' so as to be connected to a muffler 10. A fuel tank 12 is mounted beneath the rear seat 11.
Various improvements have been achieved as the safety measures for automobiles. In the case of the fuel tank, it is a current measure to locate the fuel tank as remote as possible from the rear end of the automobile, to diminish the damage in the event of a rear end collision. On the other hand, there is a demand for long distance touring which in turn requires an increased capacity of the fuel tank. To meet these demands, in modern automobiles, the fuel tank 12 is located in the vicinity of the floor tunnel outlet 2'.
An increased size of the floor tunnel 2 reduces the foot space beneath the rear seat 11 to deteriorate the comfortableness, and the fit of the carpet is failed to degrade the appearance. Therefore, the floor tunnel preferably has a reduced size.
If these demands are to be satisfied simultaneously, the curvature R,R' of the parking brake cables 7,7' at the floor tunnel outlet 2' are to be decreased extremely, resulting in a deteriorated operating efficiency of the cable. This in turn leads to a deterioration in the durability of the cable, as well as increased frequency or demand for the renewal of the cables. The renewal requires a troublesome work and PG,4 expensive.
To avoid these problems, it has been a common measure to preserve a large curvature of the parking brake cables at a cost of increased size of the floor tunnel outlet 2' and reduced size of the fuel tank 12.